This invention relates to a faucet and particularly to a faucet assembly which includes a faucet housing, putty plate and throat plate.
One type of faucet includes a housing shell having a base and a spout formed as a single unit. The housing shell includes an opening which is formed by an opening of the base and an opening of the spout which communicate with each other. Water transporting facilities are mounted within the housing shell through the opening thereof to facilitate use of the faucet in a well known manner.
Typically, some form of covering is placed over the openings of the base and the spout to complete the assembly. In some instances, a cover referred to as a putty plate is placed over the opening of the base and is secured thereto. Another cover referred to as a throat plate is placed over the opening of the spout and is secured thereto complete a two-cover assembly. Still another type of cover is formed as a single molded unit including a throat plate section and a putty plate, or base cover, section.
While the single-unit cover facilitates less handling during an assembly operation than the two-cover assembly, the throat plate section and the putty plate section are composed of the same material. In many instances, it is desirable to have a throat plate which is capable of providing a decorative surface finish than would be required for the putty plate. For example, the putty plate could be made from plastic and the throat plate is made from a metal capable providing the surface finish. In these instances, the advantages of the single-unit cover are lost and the putty plate has to be assembled with the housing independently of the throat plate.
Thus, there is a need for readily assembling a putty plate and a throat plate as a single assembly to gain the advantage of simplified handling of the assembly during the process of assembling the assembly with the housing.
Also, when the putty plate and the throat plate are assembled with the housing as separate elements, each of the elements is attached to the housing only. If they could be attached to each other, in addition to being attached separately to the housing, the final assembly of the housing, putty plate and throat plate would be much stronger, integrally joined assembly.
Thus, there is a need for the ability to readily assemble a putty plate and a throat plate together as a integral unit for subsequent assembly with a faucet housing.